The People's Party has regained the mayoralty of the Alicante town of Callosa de Segura this Thursday. The motion of no confidence, presented jointly with Vox and with the strategic backing of the Union of Independent Citizens (UCIN), has succeeded. The decisive vote of the non-attached councilor José Antonio Illán has allowed the ousting of socialist Amparo Serrano and the closure of a 21-month period of left-wing management.
With the investiture of the popular candidate Juan Antonio Franco, the executive maintained by the PSPV-PSOE and Esquerra Unida-Unidas Podemos comes to an end. This pact, achieved after an initial year of PP minority government, had managed to wrest the mayoralty from Manuel Martínez. Franco stated he assumes the position with "humility, respect for the institution, and the firm conviction that the city deserves a better future" for the remaining eleven months until the next local elections.
The origin of this new turn of events dates back to the beginning of the term, which arose from local elections with a complex arithmetic result. The PP was the most voted list with 7 councilors, but the initial lack of agreement with the independents from UCIN (3 councilors) forced the previous popular mayor, Manuel Martínez Sirvent, to govern in an unstable minority with the sole support of the single councilor from Vox.
The situation of "ungovernability" led Martínez Sirvent to present his resignation. At that moment, the first motion of no confidence of the term was activated: the PSPV (5 councilors), led by Fran Maciá, allied with UCIN and Podemos-IU to achieve the narrow majority of 9 councilors. That express pact brought the socialist Amparo Serrano to the mayoralty, with the promise of handing over the mayoral baton to UCIN in the final stretch of the legislature.
However, the left-wing pact was not fully completed. The alliance broke in March with UCIN's exit from the municipal government. Now, this second motion of no confidence has realigned the blocs. The PP has added to its 7 councilors the vote of the Vox councilor and the support of the two representatives from UCIN, in addition to the vote of the non-attached councilor José Antonio Illán.
Although Javier Pérez (UCIN) criticized the PP's reliance on Illán's vote, his party decided to support the motion, arguing for the need for "a strong majority government to move initiatives forward". For her part, Rosario Pilar Griñán (Vox) justified her vote based on "the general interest and the commitment to work for a cleaner and safer city".
The debate in the plenary hall reflected the deep division within the corporation. The proponents of the change justified the motion due to the "lack of governability" prevailing in the municipality. Franco announced priority measures such as the tender for the cleaning service, improvements in educational infrastructure, and demanding more personnel from the central government for the local Civil Guard barracks, a facility he described as "under-resourced".
The outgoing mayor, Amparo Serrano, defended her economic management against what she considers a motion "with the sole motive of holding office". Serrano recalled that her executive received the municipal coffers "in a dire state" and that she leaves the town hall with the 2025 accounts in order and a surplus of almost two million euros. From Esquerra Unida-Unidas Podemos, Ángel García rejected the handover, criticizing the lack of "an objective explanation" for this new political shift.
